Shabazz opened the discussion with a passage from Du Bois and by noting that the exploration of Afro-American heritage in Western Massachusetts is a "process of ongoing discovery."
SPRINGFIELD - According to many scholars of the city's history, the African-American influence in Springfield and the region has been largely untold and remains a trove of potential discovery.
In honor of Black History Month and the birth date of black activist, scholar and author W.E.B. Du Bois (born in Great Barrington on Feb. 23, 1868) the Pan African Historical Museum USA in Springfield's Tower Square hosted a three-member panel discussion on the city's African-American heritage.
Amilcar Shabazz, professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, led the discussion in the museum, surrounded by iconic images of the city's civil rights evolution and dozens of community members who came to listen.
Shabazz opened the discussion with a passage from Du Bois and by noting that the exploration of African-American heritage in Western Massachusetts is a "process of ongoing discovery."
Other members of the panel included Joseph Carvalho III, retired president and executive director of the Springfield Museums, and Wayne E. Phaneuf, executive editor of The Republican.
The two are co-authoring a book due out later this year entitled "Struggle for Freedom," a detailed history from the advent of slave settlements in the region in the 17th century to the second inauguration of President Barack H. Obama.
"If we hadn't taken so long to finish the book, it would have ended with his first inauguration and the burning of the Macedonia Church," Phaneuf said, referring to the torching of the black church on Tinkham Road by three white men on the eve of Obama's first election in 2008. The church has since been rebuilt and the men are serving lengthy sentences in federal prison.
Like the contrast between the victory of the nation's first black president with a startling hate crime that drew national attention, Phaneuf said much of the city's civil rights history is filled with triumphs and heartbreak.
Carvalho, who has authored two books on black families in Hampden County, said his interest in black history was piqued when he was an archivist at the Springfield library early in his career. Genealogy buffs would come looking for information on black residents and ancestors and there was little to be had.
"How could you leave slavery out?" Carvalho asked of previous historical accounts of the city. "How could you leave out the workers who built the stone walls and harvested our crops ... and fought for our country?"
He likened the fractured history to a puzzle box with missing pieces.
The panel fielded questions from community members and scholars about early black entrepreneurs in the area, Martin Luther King Jr.'s visits to Springfield and the role of churches in the city's black community.
Shabazz noted told audience members that "a black community" does not result solely from a group of black people living in an area, but from relationships and networks.
The discussion was one of several events for Black History Month including culinary and genealogy workshops and gospel music.